THE  BARTLETT  SYSTEM 


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STREET  NOMENCLATURE 

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An  Improved  Method  of  Designating  the 
Streets  and  House  Numbers  of  Cities 


PREFACE 


The  essential  principles  embodied  in  this  system  of  street  nomen- 
clature were  first  suggested  by  the  author  in  1909.  As  is  well  known, 
most  of  our  large  cities  are  afflicted  with  such  a complexity  of  street 
names  and  numbers  that  a large  aggregate  of  time  is  needlessly  used  by 
police  officers,  postal  and  traction  employes,  drivers,  etc.,  in  locating  ad- 
dresses for  themselves  or  others.  To  devise  a plan  simple  and  uniform  in 
its  application  and  easily  understood  has  been  the  aim  of  the  author,  and 
the  use  of  the  system  herein  outlined,  or  such  modification  as  may  be 
made  necessary  'by  local  conditions,  will  solve  the  difficulties  of  our  pres- 
ent lack  of  system  in  street  naming.  • Street  signs  may  even  be  omitted,  as 
every  house  number  will  practically  answer  the  purpose. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  ideas  herein  advanced  may  be  of  use  to  those 
into  whose  hands  it  may  fall.  Criticism  or  suggestions  will  be  thankfully 
received  by  the  author.  It  will  also  be  appreciated  if,  after  you  have 
finished  with  the  article  you  will  send  it  to  some  one  to  whom  it  might 
l:e  of  interest. 

H.  E.  BARTLETT. 


1447  E.  66th  Place. 
Chicago,  Sept.  27,  1913. 


i 


□ J va-7 


STREET  NOMENCLATURE 


H.  E.  Bartlett,  Mem.  Am.  Soc.  C.  E. 


So  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  the  subject  of  street  names  and  house 
numbers  has  received  but  little  attention,  though  it  affects  the  daily  life 
of  a large  part  of  the  residents  of  our  cities  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it 
so  frequently  becomes  necessary  to  secure  directions  from  some  guide 
or  person  before  going  to  an  unfamiliar  part  of  the  city,  while  all  have 
experienced  the  uneasy  feeling  due  to  the  fear  of  being  carried  beyond 
one’s  destination  because  of  lack  of  street  signs  or  inability  to  understand 
the  jargon  used  bv  most  street  car  conductors  in  announcing  the  names  of 
streets. 

From  the  earliest  times  it  has  been  the  custom  to  give  to  streets  the 
names  of  distinguished  persons  or  prominent  objects,  most  of  the  cities 
in  the  United  States  having  streets  bearing  the  names  of  Presidents  of 
our  country,  while  many  local  celebrities  are  thus  perpetuated  The  origin 
of  Lake,  River,  Canal,  Church,  Capitol,  Main,  Railroad,  etc.  streets  of 
so  many  cities  needs  no  explanation,  and  the  Place  de  l'Opera  of  Paris 
is  a notable  illustration  of  the  same  idea. 

In  small  places  the  inconveniences  arising  from  the  use  of  names 
for  streets  is  not  of  particular  moment,  but  in  large  cities  the  multiplicity 
pf  names  becomes  burdensome,  particularly  to  those  whose  duties  require 
aii  intimate  knowledge  of  street  names  and  house  numbers,  such  as 
policemen,  postal  and  traction  employes,  drivers,  etc.  To  remove  some 
of  these  objections,  resort  has  been  had  to  various  devices,  particularly 
Vd*the  use  of  numbers  or  the  subdivision  of  the  city  into  districts,  with  dis- 
tinctive  terms  for  the  streets,  as  in  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  where  the  thorough- 
V fares  in  a certain  section  are  called  STREETS,  while  another  part  has  the 
#term  AVENUES  applied.  In  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  and  Washington, 
D.  C.,  still  other  methods  of  subdividing  the  city  are  in  use,  each  having 
certain  small  advantages.  In  St.  Louis.  Mo.,  where  nearly  all  the  streets 


4 


The  Bartlett  System  of 


have  names,,  the  house  numbering  being  on  the  so-called  "decimal'  sys- 
tem,” it  is  a common  practice  to  locate  a street  by  designating  it  as,  say 
"3600  South,”  "4200  West,”  etc.,  meaning  that  it  is  36  blocks  south  ox 
the  base  line  for  east  and  west  streets,  or  42  blocks  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  etc.  In  the  direct  use  of  numbers  for  streets  we  have  many  ex- 
amples, such  as  New  York,  N.  Y. ; Chicago,  111.;  Kansas  City,  Mo.;  Den- 
ver, Colo.,  and  numerous  smaller  places,  but  in  each  case  only  a part 
of  the  streets  are  so  marked,  the  use  of  the  numbers  not  being  carried  to 
its  logical  conclusion. 

As  the  primary  use  of  either  names  or  numbers  for  streets  is  to  so 
designate  them  that  they  may  be  readily  found,  it  is  apparent  that  the 
plan  which  does  this  best  must  be  of  such  nature  that,  once  an  address 
be  given,  there  must  arise  in  the  mind  an  exact  idea  of  the  location  of 
the  street  with  reference  to  any  other  street.  This  is  clearly  impossible 
when  names  are  used,  as  a name  can  convey  to  one  unfamiliar  with  the 
locality  absolutely  no  idea  as  to  where  the  street  may  be  found.  This  is 
so  universally  recognized  that  every  large  city  has  its  published  map  or 
guide  to  enable  even  its  own  residents  to  find  their  way  from  one  part 
to  another.  Readers  familiar  with  New  York  City  have  no  doubt  seen 
the  printed  directions  to  locate  house  numbers ; Chicago  requires  a book 
of  200  pages  for  the  same  purpose  ; while  many  are  famib’ar  with  the 
bewildering  lists  of  Boston,  Philadelphia,  New  Orleans,  and  other  large 
cities. 

Briefly,  the  principal  objections  to  the  use  of  names  for  streets  and 
the  advantages  of  numbers  for  the  same  purpose  may  be  stated  as  fol- 
lows : 

Since  NAMES  cannot  be  so  used  as  to  bear  a definite  relation,  one 
to  another,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  convey  to  one  unfamiliar  with 
the  part  of  the  city  in  question  an  exact  idea  of  street  location,  thus  vio- 
lating the  most  essential  principle  of  a successful  system.  On  the  other 
hand,  since  NUMBERS  can  be  made  to  bear  this  definite  relation,  it  be- 
comes easily  possible  to  so  employ  them  as  to  fix  the  location  of  any  street 
with  reference  to  any  other  street. 

Being  principally  proper  nouns,  and  often  poorly  written,  street 
names  frequently  become  nearly  or  quite  undecipherable,  as  every  postal 
clerk  can  testify,  with  consequent  great  waste  of  time  and  irritation  to  all 
concerned.  This  is  particularly  true  of  foreign  correspondents,  who  must 


Street  Nomenclature 


5 


blindly  follow  the  written  address,  with  no  idea  as  to  its  meaning  or 
origin.  Suppose  the  reader  was  asked  to  write  an  address  in  Chinese,  he 
would  need  be  furnished  with  a copy  and  then  do  his  best  to  imitate  it, 
trusting  to  luck  that  he  had  included  all  the  little  peculiarities  of  the  sym- 
bols, which  mean  nothing  to  him,  but  do  convey  a great  deal  to  one  at- 
tempting to  deliver  his  communication  to  the  address  so  written.  Yet  the 
above  is  but  an  exaggerated  example  of  the  difficulty  common  in  the  use 
of  hand  written  NAMES.  New  Orleans,  for  instance,  has  a particularly 
large  number  of  names  in  which  the  pronunciation  of  them  conveys 
almost  no  idea  of  their  spelling,  as  in  the  word  Tchoupitoulas,  a some- 
what well-known  street  of  that  city. 

The  converse  of  the  above  is  true,  as  frequently  the  spelling  conveys 
no  idea  of  the  pronunciation,  and  this  commonly  results  in  streets  having 
two  or  more  pronunciations  of  their  names  by.  the  residents  of  the  city. 
Thus,  Bellefontaine  Avenue,  St.  Louis,  has  three;  Goethe  Street,  Chicago, 
nearly  as  many  as  it  has  letters,  while  a stranger  in  Colorado  Springs, 
Colo,,  is  immediately  known  when  he  attempts  to  pronounce  Tejon,  one 
of  the  principal  streets  of  that  city.  The  Indian  names  sometimes  used 
for  streets,  as  in  Denever,  Colo.,  or  Leavenworth,  Kas.,  may  have  a 
fanciful  significance,  but  are  of  doubtful  utility.  Jaw-breaking  appella- 
tions may  be  satisfactory  for  Pullman  cars  and  steamships,  but  have  no 
place  in  a practical  street  naming  scheme  for  every  day  people.  The 
owner  of  an  office  building  who  gave  these  or  any  other  names  to  the 
floors  of  the  building  would  be  considered  an  imbecile,  yet  it  is  an  exact 
parallel  with  the  use  of  NAMES  for  streets.  As  no  objections  on  the 
score  of  spelling  or  pronunciation  can  be  raised  to  the  use  of  numbers, 
it  seems  the  part  of  common  sense  to  thus  employ  them.  While  the  above 
are  largely  matters  of  convenience,  they  nevertheless  save  a vast  aggregate 
amount  of  time,  thus  materially  facilitating  business  by  the  elimination  of 
unnecessary  work. 

Expansion  of  a city  by  the  addition  of  suburban  towns  usually  adds 
to  the  confusion  of  street  names,  as  often  the  annexed  territory  has  names 
the  same  as  in  the  annexing  city.  Frequently  from  this  or  other  reasons, 
a street  may  have  several  names  throughout  its  length,  and  the  same  may 
be  used  to  designate  a number  of  different  streets,  as  in  Chicago  they  have 
^a  Drexel  Avenue,  a Drexel  Boulevard,  a Drexel  Court,  and  a Drexel 
Square,  thus,  it  would  seem,  sufficiently  honoring  the  famous  Philadel- 
phian. In  the  above  manner  Chicago  has  accumulated  nearly  700  duplica- 


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6 


The  Bartlett  System  of 


Street  Nomenclature 


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Improved  Method  of 

Naming.  **•>  numbering 

the  Streets  q^C/t/es 


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- HE. BARTLETT 
- M.  AM.  SOC.CE 


CHICAGO  - 


DEC.  /9./&H  — 

FIG.  1 


8 


The  Bartlett  System  of 


tions  in  her  street  names,  to  say  nothing  of  the  practical  repetition  of 
nearly  every  name  by  its  division  into  a North  and  South  or  an  East  and 
West  portion,  with  the  accompanying  use  of  the  same  house  numbers^ 
in  the  two  parts.  This  division  into  portions,  requiring  the  use  of  the 
above  prefixes  in  order  to  designate  the  exact  address,  is  particularly  ob- 
jectionable,  and  in  the  case  of  Chicago  has  led  to  so  many  errors  in  the 
addresses  on  mail  matter,  due  to  the  omission  or  wrong  use  of  the  prefix, 
that  the  Post  Office  Department  has  a standing  order  as  to  which  guess 
must  first  be  used  in  attempting  to  deliver  the  matter  to  an  address  where 
the  prefix  is  omitted.  Thus,  if  a letter  is  received  addressed  simply  to 
66th  Place,  it  must  first  be  taken  to  East  66th  Place,  and  should  this 
prove  wrong,  then  it  is  taken  to  West  66th  Place. 

As  numbers  are  free  from  all  the  above  objections,  give  shorter  ad- 
dresses, with  far  more  freedom  from  possible  errors  in  writing  them, 
the  author  has  devised  a system  'based  upon  their  use  which  is  'applicable 
to  nearly  all  cities.  Its  employment  will  do  away  with  the  objectionable 
features  so  common  to  names,  and  will  save  a vast  amount  of  time  and 
accompanying  mental  worry. 

By  reference  to  the  following  text,  with  its  full  diagram  (Fig.  1),  the 
plan  is  easily  understood.  In  this  system  of  street  nomenclature,  two 
BASE  LINES  at  as  near  right  angles  as  possible  are  chosen.  These 
should  be  taken  as  the  center  lines  of  prominent  streets  running  approxi- 
mately through  the  center  of  the  business  district,  so  that  the  smaller 
house  numbers  will  occur  in  the  portion  receiving  and  forwarding  the 
greatest  amount  of  mail,  thus  saving  a large  amount  of  time. 

All  principal  East  and  West  thoroughfares  shall  be  called 
“STREETS,”  and  the  term  “PLACE”  used  to  designate  minor  parallel 
streets  located  between  the  principal  ones. 

All  principal  North  and  South  thoroughfares  shall  be  called  “AVE- 
NUES” or  “CORSOS,”  the  term  “COURT”  designating  minor  ones  par- 
allel therewith. 

Diagonal  thoroughfares  may  be  denominated  “WAYS,”  with  a desig- 
nating number  or  name,  or  both.  If  the  former,  any  small  number  will 
do,  while  if  a name  be  used,  it  may  be  one  indicating  the  general  direc- 
tion the  street  runs  from  the  business  district  of  the  city.  If  there  be - 
several  diagonal  streets  running  in  the  same  general  direction,  a number 
and  a name  may  be  combined,  as  Third  Southwest  Way,  indicating  that 


Street  Nomenclature 


9 


the  street  is  the  third  running  in  the  general  direction  of  southwest  from 
the  business  section.  As  diagonal  streets  are  usually  few  in  number, 
*there  will  be  but  little  difficulty  with  them.. 

Beginning  with  the  East  and  West  Base  Line  and  calling  it  1st 
t STREET,  all  streets  north  of  and  parallel  therewith  shall  receive  the 
even  numbers,  2,  4,  6,  8,  10,  12,  etc.,  while  those  south  of  and  parallel  with 
the  Base  lane  shall  in  turn  receive  the  odd  numbers,  3,  5,  7,  9,  11,  13,  etc. 
Any  intervening  minor  streets  or  PLACES  shall  receive  the  same  number 
as  the  STREET  immediately  preceding  it. 

Likewise,  beginning  with  the  North  and  South  Base  Line  and  calling 
it  1st  AVENUE,  all  thoroughfares  east  of  and  parallel  therewith  shall 
be  denominated  “AVENUES”  or  “CORSOS,”  and  receive  in  turn  the  odd 
numbers,  3,  5,  7,  9,  11,  13,  15,  etc.,  while  those  west  of  and  parallel  there- 
with shall  in  turn  receive  the  even  numbers,  2,  4,  6,  8,  10,  12,  14,  etc.,  in- 
tervening minor  thoroughfares  being  called  “COURTS’'  and  receiving 
the  same  number  as  the  “AVENUE”  immediately  preceding  it. 

The  numbering  is  best  done  on  the  so-called  “decimal  system,”  that 
is,  on  the  basis  of  one  hundred  numbers  to  the  block,  a block  in  this  sense 
being  defined  as  the  distance  from  one  STREET  to  another,  disregarding 
any  intervening  PLACES  or  COURTS.  Thus,  the  first  house  number  in 
any  block  will  be  100  times  the  number  of  the  cross  street,  as  for  ex- 
ample, 2400  occurring  on  any  STREET  immediately  west  of  24th  AVE- 
NUE or  CORSO,  and  2300  occurring  on  any  AVENUE  or  CORSO 
immediately  south  of  23rd  STREET.  As  a matter  of  detail,  it' is  recom- 
mended that  the  even  numbers  be  placed  on  the  north  and  west  sides 
of  the  thoroughfares,  thus  conforming  strictly  to  the  spirit  of  the  plan. 
The  use  of  1600  or  2000  house  numbers  to  the  mile  is  advisable,  as  by 
this  means  it  becomes  a simple  mental  calculation  to  determine  the  linear 
distance  from  one  house  number  to  another,  measured  along  the  street 
or  streets  on  which  they  occur.  Because  of  the  loose  or  interchangeable 
use  of  the  words  street  and  avenue,  the  substitution  of  the  Italian, 
CORSO,  for  the  latter  is  recommended.  This  word  is  euphonious  when 
* used  with  any  number  and  cannot  be  abbreviated  into  St.,  thus  confusing 
. it  wdth  the  common  abbreviation  for  STREET,  as  can  the  usual  Italian 
word,  Strada. 

In  putting  into  practical  execution  a change  from  names  to  num- 
bers for  streets,  city  officials  will  be  confronted  with  many  objections 


10 


The  Bartlett  System 

and  not  a little  obstinate  opposition,  the  principal  ones  being  the  cost  of 
the  change,  the  resulting  temporary  confusion,  and  the  sentimental  rea-  ^ 
sons.  Objecting  persons  of  the  last  class  will  usually  be  old  residents 
who  have  long  been  used  to  the  names,  and  hence  have  the  sentimental 
regard  for  them  that  they  might  have  for  an  old  friend.  Another  type  of  i 
this  class  is  the  “moss-back,”  who  is  found  in  every  community  and  objects 
to  any  change  simply  because  it  is  a change.  This  variety  has  urged 
his  objections  to  all  changes  in  affairs,  inventions,  etc.,  which  have  been 
in  the  nature  of  progress  for  the  human  race.  He  can  give  no  real  reasons 
for  his  attitude,  and  should  therefore  be  ignored.  Upon  carefully  study- 
ing the  proposed  plan,  many  of  the  opponents  of  the  first  class  above  men- 
tioned will  see  the  benefits  of  the  new  plan  and  will  cease  their  objec- 
tions. As  for  the  resulting  temporary  confusion,  it  may  be  stated  that 
Chicago  recently  changed  a large  part  of  its  house  numbers  with  very 
slight  inconvenience,  even  in  the  congested  business  district,  and  what 
is  possible  in  the  one  instance  is  easily  done  in  similar  cases.  The  average 
expense  to  each  householder  will  be  well  under  a dollar,  in  many  cases 
being  no  more  than  a little  of  his  own  time  and  the  trouble  of  doing  the 
work.  The  price  of  a good  cigar  will  usually  cover  the  expense. 

The  system  as  above  outlined  is  very  simple  and  uniform  in  its  applica- 
tion. The  frequent  errors  arising  from  the  use  of  the  prefixes  “East,” 
“West,”  “North”  and  “South”  are  eliminated,  with  a vast  aggregate 
saving  of  time,  affecting  all  who  write  addresses,  as  stenographers,  bill 
clerks,  newspapers,  etc.,  or  who  must  read  them  in  the  handling  of  mail 
matter.  As  a system  of  rectangular  co-ordinates  locates  a point*  so- will  the 
system  of  street  nomenclature  outlined  above  quickly  fix  in  the  mind  the 
position  of  any  street  and  its  house  numbers  with  reference  to  any  other 
street.  In  short,  it  is  believed  to  furnish  a most  excellent  and  simple  plan 
for  the  numbering  of  streets  and  houses  in  cities. 


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